


Fairytales

by historymiss



Category: Black Panther (2018)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-25 03:45:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13825791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/historymiss/pseuds/historymiss
Summary: Erik Killmonger passes from reality into myth





	Fairytales

They can only speak of Wakanda in the darkness. At night, though the sirens still wail outside and Erik can hear the city breathe and roar around them, his father tells him about the land he came from. A secret kingdom, filled with magic and colour, where his grandfather is a king and his family has ruled for generations. 

 

_ One day I will show you Wakanda _ , N’Jobu tells him (he is only N’Jobu in the dark):  _ the buildings are bright and beautiful and alive with song, and the sunsets paint the sky from end to end. _

 

(He tells these stories once, in class: it’s twice-over the worst thing he’s ever done, because not only do his friends laugh at him for believing in fairy tales, but his father’s anger fills the apartment for days afterwards, his words sharp and furious. Wakanda is glorious, but it’s a secret.)

 

Until his father dies, Erik starts to privately think that Wakanda is just a story, made up for a father to tell his son so that he can believe in something other than the world he’s been born into. Later, he will discover- or, more correctly, understand- that nobody believes in Wakanda anyway. He starts to waver himself, until he begins to carve the lives he takes into his skin, each raised mound a step along the path he’s taking, each scar intended to show the Wakandans the high price he’s paid to pass the border from reality into myth.

 

_ Nobody dies in Wakanda _ , Erik tells himself, sing-song and mocking, walking from the apartment block to the basketball court, thinking of the stories of the wise and wily river tribe, the war dogs, the loyal rhinos that his father draws for him in crayon to copy (Erik has never seen a rhinoceros).

 

California exhales into the night. Wakanda exists only in the darkness: he looks up to the sky and sees a silver edge vanish, quick, just like that: a dream disappearing into the darkness.

 

Erik begins to walk back to his apartment.

 

Then he begins to run.

 

People die in Oakland all the time.


End file.
